Star Trek: Discovery Easter Egg Teases First Official Nod to Spock

The third episode of Star Trek: Discoveryincluded an interesting nod to popular Star Trek character, Spock. Star Trek: Discovery is a prequel to the original Star Trekseries that began in the ’60s and is set in a different timeline from the J.J. Abrams/Justin Lin Star Trek feature films. Created by Bryan Fuller andAlex Kurtzman, Discovery follows the crew of the USS Discovery as they explore the Federation–Klingon war.

Since Discovery is billed as a prequel to the original series, fans knew that it was only a matter of time before we start to discover its ties into the original series. In a surprising turn of events, the first major Easter egg doesn’t just reference the popular Star Trek character, but also the old animated series.

As noted by Comicbook.com, episode 3 of Discovery titled ‘Context is for Kings’ follows USS Discovery away team investigating the ship’s derelict sister ship, the USS Glenn. Without spoiling too much from the episode, while escaping a sticky situation, Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) recites lines from Lewis Carroll’s fantasy story Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Later, when Burnham returns to her quarters, her roommate Cadet Sylvia Tilly notices Burnham’s book — a rare item in the 23rd century. This is where things get interesting, as Burnham tells Tilly that her foster mother, Amanda, used to read that book to both Burnham and Amanda’s biological son.

This brief exchange is interesting because, in the Star Trek lore, Amanda (full name Amanda Grayson) is Sarek’s human wife and the aforementioned biological son is none other than Spock. While Burnham doesn’t actually namedrop Spock, it’s obvious who she’s talking about.

Besides the reference to Spock, the Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Easter egg is also a reference to Star Trek: The Animated Series. In the episode titled ‘Once Upon a Planet’ Spock tells Captain Kirk that his mother, Amanda Grayson was fond of the writings of Lewis Carroll, who is the author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. This may bring about some level of confusion going forward, as Star Trek: The Animated Series has not been part of the official Star Trek canon since the mid-’90s.

Does the Easter egg mean we will actually get to see Spock in future episodes of Discovery or will Spock and other popular Star Trek characters just be limited to nods and Easter eggs? It’s safe to assume that CBS will be going with the latter, at least for now.